1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to heat treating aging ovens, and particularly those utilized in the heat treating art.
2. Description of the Related Art
Aging of metal parts is accomplished in refractory type ovens which utilize a large amount of factory floor space. By utilization of more than one of these ovens requires extra factory floor space. These ovens are large capital expenditures for manufacturing companies. Since each of these ovens are dedicated to a single product type, normally a plurality of ovens are utilized for heat treating a like plurality of different parts. By having duplicate ovens, the manufacturing companies must incur larger capital outlays for installation, use, and maintenance of the ovens. Additionally, factories having two or more such ovens necessarily require duplicate controls, further increasing the cost of producing heat treated parts.
What is needed in the art is an aging oven able to handle more than one product type at a time, thereby permitting utilization of two different process length times within the same oven.